Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cherry Water
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cherry water
Pound the cherries with the stones to extract the kernel flavor.
Add water and lemon juice to the mixture.
Strain through a fine sieve.
Serve
Serve chilled over ice.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and natural sweetness that make up the drink's body.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the fruit's sweetness.
The step that matters
Pound the cherries with the stones. The stones contain kernels that release a nutty, almond-like aroma when crushed. Crushing them lightly extracts this flavor into the liquid, while the stones and pulp are then removed by straining.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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